Category Archives: MOT

Prahlad Singh Patel, State Minister Tourism (I/C) and Culture, has said that the National Tourism Policy needs to be worked on further, and it would take the MOT at least one year to finalise everything and release it officially. The draft of National Tourism Policy is already out and available on the MOT website, but the official release has been pending for the same. MOT has already executed many projects mentioned in the policy, like Incredible India 2.0 campaign, Incredible India website, etc.

Prahlad Singh Patel, State Tourism and Culture Minister, has announced that the Tourism Ministry will make wildlife its theme for the Incredible India campaign for the next two months. Patel revealed that they have taken this decision in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi being featured on a television show. “We have decided to make wildlife the theme for Incredible India for the next two months,” he said. He has earlier shared that the demand of wildlife tourism is there in India, and because of that they are focusing on developing dedicated areas centered around wildlife. “We have pinpointed 2-3 areas where we will develop infrastructure for wildlife tourism. I believe that the choice of travellers has changed and that should be the criteria for offerings,” he shared.

Prahlad Singh Patel, State Tourism and Culture Minister (I/C), said that they will work towards ensuring that there is a no-crime zone around 500 m–1 km radius area of major tourist attractions by tightening security arrangements. They will also work towards training drivers, guides and tour operators, affiliated with MOT, on dealing with foreign tourists, especially women. He said, “The personnel that interact with the tourists at every touch-point need to be sensitised on how to deal with them, and make sure that they do not carry any negative perception about the country. Even in case of any problem, the tourist shall be able to seek help from his phone, no matter where he/she is. Even in case they enter one state from another, we are trying to work on the technology that the helpline numbers in their phones change automatically, depending on their location.”

Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, MOT, revealed that the third edition of Paryatan Parv will be celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and will be held from Oct 2- 13 across the country. “The dates for the nationwide activities under Paryatan Parv by the states will take place from October 2-13, 2019, while the activities under Government of India will be held from October 2-6 at Rajpath in New Delhi. This year Paryatna Parv will be special because it is the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and the theme will be ‘150 years of celebrating the Mahatma’, wherein, we will have activities centered around the life of Mahatma Gandhi,” he said.

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (IC), Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, has announced that they will soon install information boards at major monuments across the country.  These would have information in three foreign languages, the choice of languages would be determined based on the countries from where that particular monument gets the maximum number of tourists. This might also be followed by a digital code on the board, where tourists can point their phones and get information of the monument in detail.

The government announced that Jammu and Kashmir would be a UT with a Legislature while the Ladakh region will be a separate UT without a legislature. Talking about its impact on tourism, Parvez Dewan, Former Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, says, “I don’t think tourism will get affected post this decision. The unrest or security issue is very temporary, and in the long run tourism will not be affected because these UTs will remain next to each other. Since 1994-95, a certain number of Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims have always gone to Kashmir after the Darshan. Around 34 per cent of foreign tourists visiting Ladakh do it in combination with Kashmir and around 66 per cent might only go to Ladakh. Similarly, a certain percentage always do Jammu and Kashmir together, and that will continue.”

The government announced that Jammu and Kashmir would be a UT with a Legislature while the Ladakh region will be a separate UT without a legislature. Talking about its impact on tourism, Parvez Dewan, Former Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, says, “I don’t think tourism will get affected post this decision. The unrest or security issue is very temporary, and in the long run tourism will not be affected because these UTs will remain next to each other. Since 1994-95, a certain number of Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims have always gone to Kashmir after the Darshan. Around 34 per cent of foreign tourists visiting Ladakh do it in combination with Kashmir and around 66 per cent might only go to Ladakh. Similarly, a certain percentage always do Jammu and Kashmir together, and that will continue.

Ministry of Tourism (MOT) is working with other ministries to ease the visa regime, as well as address the industry demand to reduce the visa fee and making visa free in lean period. Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary, MOT, shared that they have been working with tourism stakeholders and working towards addressing their problems. “As MOT, after understanding the pain points of the industry and various stakeholders, we are in discussion and negotiations with various ministries to see the areas which need further facilitation, which stakeholders need for better promotion of tourism. The issues are related with the visa facilitation process, taxation or financing of the bigger projects We hope certain positive results would come out and when that happens, the respective ministries would announce their decisions,” he said.

The Regional Office (East) of Ministry of Tourism, Government of India organised a series of three Domestic Road Shows at Bhubaneswar (26th July), Kolkata (28th July) and Bodhgaya (30th July) with a view to catalyse focussed Business to Business (B2B) interactions among hoteliers, tour operators, transport operators and other stakeholders of the venue state and buyers of tourism products and services from all over India. 30 pan-India quality buyers were hosted for this 3 city roadshow ‘Purvaiya 2019’. The roadshow was followed by options of FAM trips.

Nitin Tripathi has been appointed as the Media Advisor for Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Tripathi has been a senior media professional and before this role, he was working as Group Consulting Editor for Sambhav Group based in Gujarat. With over 15 years of experience in the media industry, he has been the consulting editor for Gujarat Samachar Group  and Former Editor at Metro TV, apart from working for ETV- Network 18 and Sahara Samay. Owing to his experience in print, broadcast and online media, Tripathi will be focusing on the media strategies for the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism. He is one of the few private professionals being inducted in the Government.